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Category: Communications

  • $66M penalty for Optus over poor customer sales conduct

    $66M penalty for Optus over poor customer sales conduct

    An Australian judge fined telecommunications giant Optus 100 million Australian dollars ($66 million) Wednesday for unconscionable conduct selling services to hundreds of vulnerable customers including in Indigenous communities outside the range of its coverage.

    The subsidiary of Singapore government-owned Singtel is separately facing multimillion-dollar fines over its failure last week to connect hundreds of emergency calls due to an outage that’s been linked to four deaths.

    Federal Court Justice Patrick O’Sullivan approved a plea agreement struck between Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over unconscionable conduct and inappropriate sales practices spanning four years until July 2023.

    He said Optus’ conduct was “extremely serious and can only be described as appalling.”

    “Optus senior management knew, or ought to have known, of the system failures that allowed the unconscionable conduct which may rightly be described as predatory,” O’Sullivan told the court.

    “Of particular concern is the fact that Optus’ conduct predominantly affected vulnerable consumers including people with mental disabilities, people suffering from financial hardship, those with low financial literacy and people with limited English proficiency and/or learning difficulties,” he added.

    Many victims were vulnerable Indigenous people from regional and remote communities, some of whom lived outside the range of Optus mobile coverage.

    Optus sales staff applied undue pressure to customers, fabricated customer details to ensure higher credit approvals for contracts and then engaged debt collectors to recover what was owed.

    Following the ruling, Optus said in a statement it was “remediating impacted customers as a matter of priority.” The statement didn’t detail that remediation.

    Optus would also pay AU$1 million ($660,000) to support digital literacy initiatives for Indigenous Australians.

    When Optus admitted the corporate law breaches in June, chief executive Stephen Rue described them as “inexcusable and unacceptable.”

    The judge’s criticisms came hours after Optus appointed an expert to review the outage Sept. 18 that impacted 631 customers who tried to phone emergency services. Four of those emergencies were fatal.

    Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said a government inquiry into the outage would investigate whether the parent company Singtel was providing Optus with sufficient money to make emergency calls reliable.

    Singtel chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon said the parent company had invested AU$9.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in Optus in the past five years to build network infrastructure across Australia.

    Singtel “will continue to invest as needed for Optus to provide reliable communication services to all Australians,” Moon said in a statement.

    Rue said Optus investigators have already established that the latest outage was caused by “human error.”

    “It’s not expenditure, it’s process. The standard processes were not followed. That’s not an investment issue. That is people not following processes,” Rue said. AP

  • UK business costs 10x higher than Europe, BT warns

    UK business costs 10x higher than Europe, BT warns

    The boss of BT, opens new tab said the burden of “government inflicted” taxes and compliance was 10 times higher in Britain than in Europe, as she warned that uncertainty about any further increase would deter the investment the country needed.

    Chief Executive Allison Kirkby said BT and the wider telecoms sector could be a catalyst for economic growth but investors needed certainty that they could make a return.

    “We’ve invested 25 billion pounds, the majority of that into what is Europe’s largest, fastest, highest quality fibre footprint,” she said at the Connected Britain conference.

    “If it’s truly adopted by citizens, businesses and enterprises, it can fuel real growth.”

    The business and trade department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Kirkby’s comments, which came after U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly boss Dave Ricks labelled Britain as “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug prices.

    BT’s Openreach networks arm said on Wednesday its fibre roll-out had reached the milestone figure of 20 million homes, with take-up running at 38%.

    Ahead of what she said would be a “very difficult” budget in November, Kirkby said BT had looked at the government-inflicted costs it was paying.

    “We pay in business rates, energy levies, and other costs associated with regulation and compliance 10 times the amount our peers pay in countries like Germany and the Netherlands,” she said.

    “So we’re already at peak government-inflicted costs.”

    She said BT could be a showcase for the investment Britain needed in water, energy, transport and other infrastructure.

    “What do investors need? They need certainty that they are going to get a return on that investment and they get that certainty through stability on regulatory and fiscal policy,” she said. Reuters

  • Telecom Italia secures €500M in 5-year bond sale

    Telecom Italia secures €500M in 5-year bond sale

    Telecom Italia Spa announced on Tuesday that it has successfully placed a senior unsecured bond worth EUR500 million, following the completion of the book-building process. The fixed-rate bond, offered to institutional investors, has a five-year maturity and carries an annual coupon of 3.625%.

    In a statement, the company explained that the proceeds from this new issuance will be allocated for general corporate purposes, effectively bringing forward part of the funding activities initially planned for 2026.

    The settlement date is set for 30 September 2025, with the bond maturing on 30 September 2030. Market Screener

  • $100M fine for Optus in customer exploitation case

    $100M fine for Optus in customer exploitation case

    An Australian judge fined telecommunications giant Optus 100 million Australian dollars ($66 million) Wednesday for unconscionable conduct selling services to hundreds of vulnerable customers including in Indigenous communities outside the range of its coverage.

    The subsidiary of Singapore government-owned Singtel is separately facing multimillion-dollar fines over its failure last week to connect hundreds of emergency calls due to an outage that’s been linked to four deaths.

    Federal Court Justice Patrick O’Sullivan approved a plea agreement struck between Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over unconscionable conduct and inappropriate sales practices spanning four years until July 2023.

    He said Optus’ conduct was “extremely serious and can only be described as appalling.”

    “Optus senior management knew, or ought to have known, of the system failures that allowed the unconscionable conduct which may rightly be described as predatory,” O’Sullivan told the court.

    “Of particular concern is the fact that Optus’ conduct predominantly affected vulnerable consumers including people with mental disabilities, people suffering from financial hardship, those with low financial literacy and people with limited English proficiency and/or learning difficulties,” he added.

    Many victims were vulnerable Indigenous people from regional and remote communities, some of whom lived outside the range of Optus mobile coverage.

    Optus sales staff applied undue pressure to customers, fabricated customer details to ensure higher credit approvals for contracts and then engaged debt collectors to recover what was owed.

    Following the ruling, Optus said in a statement it was “remediating impacted customers as a matter of priority.” The statement didn’t detail that remediation.

    Optus would also pay AU$1 million ($660,000) to support digital literacy initiatives for Indigenous Australians.

    When Optus admitted the corporate law breaches in June, chief executive Stephen Rue described them as “inexcusable and unacceptable.”

    The judge’s criticisms came hours after Optus appointed an expert to review the outage Sept. 18 that impacted 631 customers who tried to phone emergency services. Four of those emergencies were fatal.

    Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said a government inquiry into the outage would investigate whether the parent company Singtel was providing Optus with sufficient money to make emergency calls reliable.

    Singtel chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon said the parent company had invested AU$9.3 billion ($6.2 billion) in Optus in the past five years to build network infrastructure across Australia.

    Singtel “will continue to invest as needed for Optus to provide reliable communication services to all Australians,” Moon said in a statement.

    Rue said Optus investigators have already established that the latest outage was caused by “human error.”

    “It’s not expenditure, it’s process. The standard processes were not followed. That’s not an investment issue. That is people not following processes,” Rue said. Reuters

  • PM Modi to launch BSNL tower at BSF posts in Jaisalmer virtually

    PM Modi to launch BSNL tower at BSF posts in Jaisalmer virtually

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate a new BSNL mobile tower at the forward posts of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Jaisalmer district on Sept 27.

    This tower will resolve the long-standing network issues in the border area. Until now, soldiers stationed at the border and the local residents often lost contact with their families due to a lack of mobile network. However, this wait is about to end.

    IG BSF Frontier Rajasthan M L Garg, stated that the initiative is a historic moment for the border areas. He said this connectivity will not only benefit the BSF personnel deployed in remote areas but will also transform the lives of the border residents who have long been deprived of mobile network facilities.

    Communication is crucial for operational capabilities, coordination, and the welfare of the soldiers. Now, soldiers will be able to stay connected with their families even while performing challenging duties. This initiative reflects the govt’s commitment to strengthening border infrastructure and integrating border area residents into the mainstream.

    Not only soldiers but also people from hundreds of villages in the border area will benefit from this facility. Digital transactions, online education, and access to govt schemes will now be possible in the villages. Farmers will be able to know market prices on time, and students will connect with online education. ToI

  • Srini Gopalan named CEO of T-Mobile, replacing leadership

    Srini Gopalan named CEO of T-Mobile, replacing leadership

    T-Mobile said on Monday insider Srinivasan Gopalan would take over as CEO from Mike Sievert on Nov. 1, marking a leadership transition as the telecom company works to defend its 5G lead in a saturated U.S. wireless market.

    Wireless carriers have been grappling with slowing subscriber growth, rising competition and increasingly cautious consumers unwilling to pay for premium plans.

    The industry has also witnessed significant consolidation in recent years, exemplified by T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint in 2020. That deal reshaped the U.S. telecom landscape, establishing Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile as the dominant ‘big three’ telecom companies, while also attracting antitrust scrutiny.

    When asked about future M&A, Gopalan told Reuters that the company is now focused on investing in the spectrum and fiber business.

    T-Mobile capitalized on the Sprint merger to grow its customer base, winning share in both postpaid and prepaid markets and positioning itself as the industry’s fastest-growing carrier.

    Under Sievert’s leadership, it overtook AT&T to become the second-largest wireless carrier by subscribers in the U.S., behind Verizon.

    T-Mobile’s aggressive promotions, add-on perks and partnerships with streaming services also helped it maintain an edge over rivals.

    Sievert, who became CEO in April 2020, will move to the newly created position of vice chairman and advise on long-term strategy, innovation and talent development. T-Mobile shares had outperformed AT&T and Verizon’s during his tenure.

    Gopalan “brings a wealth of experience and is a very impressive leader, and they’ve handled this transition exceptionally well. I don’t expect there to be any fall-off at all in T-Mobile’s performance,” MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said.

    Gopalan, currently the chief operating officer of T-Mobile, has held senior leadership positions at Bharti Airtel, Capital One and Vodafone and most recently served as the CEO of Deutsche Telekom’s Germany business, where he was credited with doubling the company’s growth rate and scaling its fiber business. CNBC

  • eSIM shipments to hit 543M devices by 2025

    eSIM shipments to hit 543M devices by 2025

    The eSIM takeover of both consumer and IoT markets is continuing at a steady pace, with global technology intelligence firm ABI Research forecasting 403 million consumer devices and 140 million IoT eSIM-enabled devices to ship in 2025. These strong results follow a reversal in the overall smartphone market’s year-on-year growth, with declines in 2022 and 2023 giving way to a sharp rebound in 2024 and 2025. Accelerating eSIM adoption among smartphone manufacturers is a key contributor to the surge of eSIM-enabled device shipments.

    “The continued dominance of smartphones, which constituted 66% of total eSIM-enabled device shipments in 2024 and 74% in 2025, explains the mitigated overall impact of a challenged IoT market,” says Research Analyst Georgia Cooke. “Delays to SGP.32 ratification have inhibited expected new IoT deployments, but with over 70% of smartphones still lacking eSIM support, the continued march towards full market penetration leaves smartphones standing as the largest eSIM growth area by volume through 2030.”

    China will soon allow eSIM for domestic use in smartphones—beginning with a pilot scheme from China Unicom—unlocking the last remaining portion of the addressable smartphone market for eSIM penetration. The high shipment volumes in this market will drive the Asia-Pacific region to hold the highest growth rates for eSIM-enabled smartphones from 2025 to 2030, with a 22.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for this period. This compares to more modest rates of 6.2% and 9.8% in North America and Western Europe, respectively, where leadership in early adoption is settling into steadier expansion.

    However, for vendors focused beyond IC and device shipments—such as innovative eSIM-first MVNOs and service providers, orchestrators, and travel eSIM vendors—these regions present a well-seeded market. This is particularly true in the United States, where Apple offers its iPhones exclusively as eSIM-only—a unique stance that overcomes the usual delay between device availability and actual usage. With other manufacturers expected to adopt this approach, and expansions of the policy to Western Europe and eventually beyond, MNOs must be prepared to scale eSIM support. Operator readiness varies by country, but with over a billion consumer profile downloads expected in 2029, the opportunity for infrastructure providers and service vendors is significant.

    This is something of a pre-emptive moment for the eSIM market, with the big changes coming at the end of 2025 and throughout 2026. Chinese adoption, expanding eSIM-only usage, and SGP.32 deployments in the IoT market will mark years of sustained momentum. As the market matures, the opportunities available become more diverse, and stronger niche alignment will drive big wins for shrewd vendors. ABI Research

  • H-1B Visa Fee hike disrupts Silicon Valley hiring

    H-1B Visa Fee hike disrupts Silicon Valley hiring

    The Trump administration’s hefty new visa fees for H-1B workers have prompted high-level talks inside companies in Silicon Valley and beyond on the possibility of moving more jobs overseas – precisely the outcome the policy was meant to stop.

    US President Donald Trump on Friday announced the change to the visa program that has long been a recruitment pathway for tech firms and encouraged international students to pursue postgraduate courses in the United States.

    While the $100,000 levy applies only to new applicants – not current holders as first announced – the confusion around its roll-out and steep cost are already leading companies to pause recruitment, budgeting and workforce plans, according to Reuters interviews of founders, venture capitalists and immigration lawyers who work with technology companies.

    “I have had several conversations with corporate clients … where they have said this new fee is simply unworkable in the US, and it’s time for us to start looking for other countries where we can have highly skilled talent,” said Chris Thomas, an immigration attorney at Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart. “And these are large companies, some of them household names, Fortune 100 type companies, that are saying, we just simply cannot continue.”

    About 141,000 new applications for H-1B were approved in 2024, according to Pew Research. Though Congress caps new visas at 65,000 a year, total approvals run higher because petitions from universities and some other categories are excluded from the cap. Computer-related jobs accounted for a majority of the new approvals, the Pew data showed.

    The Trump administration and critics of the H-1B program have said that it has been used to suppress wages and curbing it opens more jobs for US tech workers. The H-1B visa program has also made it more challenging for college graduates trying to find IT jobs, Trump’s announcement on Friday said.

    The visa previously cost employers only a few thousand dollars. But the new $100,000 fee would flip the equation, making hiring talent in countries like India – where wages are lower and Big Tech now builds innovation hubs instead of back offices.

    “We probably have to reduce the number of H-1B visa workers we can hire,” said Sam Liang, co-founder and CEO of popular artificial intelligence transcription start-up Otter. “Some companies may have to outsource some of their workforce. Hire maybe in India or other countries just to walk around this H-1B problem.”

    While conservatives have long applauded Trump’s wide-ranging immigration crackdown, the H-1B move has drawn support from some liberal quarters as well.

    Netflix co-founder and well-known Democrat donor Reed Hastings – who said he has followed H-1B politics for three decades – argued on X that the new fees would remove the need for a lottery and instead reserve visas for “very high value jobs” with greater certainty.

    But Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures that has invested in startups such as AI firm Anthropic, said “blanket rulings like this are rarely good for immigration” and would disproportionately affect startups.

    Unlike large technology companies whose compensation packages are a combination of cash and stock, pay packages of startups typically lean towards equity as they need cash to build the business.

    “For larger companies, the cost is not material. For smaller companies, those with fewer than 25 employees, it’s much more significant,” said Das. “Big tech CEOs expected this and will pay. For them, fewer small competitors is even an advantage. It’s the smaller startups that suffer most.”

    The policy could also mean fewer of the talented immigrants who often go on to launch new firms, analysts said.

    More than half of US startups valued at $1 billion or more had at least one immigrant founder, according to a 2022 report from the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan think tank based in Virginia.

    Several lawyers said startups they represent are pinning hopes on lawsuits that argue the administration overstepped by imposing a fee beyond what Congress envisioned, betting courts would dilute the rule before costs cripple hiring.

    If not, “we will see a pullback from the smartest people around the world,” said Bilal Zuberi, founder of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Red Glass Ventures, who began his career in the US on an H-1B visa. Reuters

  • VyomIC to launch private satellite constellation from India

    VyomIC to launch private satellite constellation from India

    A Chennai-based start-up VyomIC on Tuesday said they are planning to build India’s first private global satellite constellation to provide high-precision positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services.

    The start-up, founded by alumni of IIT-Madras, has raised USD 1.6 million in pre-seed funding as the first step towards realising their dream of putting in low earth orbit (LEO) satellites for providing PNT services.

    The pre-seed round for VyomIC was led by Speciale Invest, with participation from BYT Capital and DeVC.

    “The funds will be used to advance the development of VyomIC’s LEO-based PNT payload, support its spaceborne demonstration mission, and scale team hiring and business development efforts,” a company statement said.

    The start-up has been founded by Lokesh Kabdal, Vibhor Jain and Anurag Patil, who led India’s student-led hyperloop initiative and also dabbled in commercial drone swarm deployments.

    “We are not just building an Indian alternative to GPS – we are building a next-gen global system, engineered for autonomy, security and precision,” said Vibhor Jain, co-founder of VyomIC.

    The start-up aims to provide centimetre-level positioning and nanosecond-level timing – critical for applications in defence, finance, telecom, and autonomous systems.

    VyomIC’s technology aims to deliver spoofing-proof and jamming-resistant signals, overcoming the fragility of existing systems like GPS and GLONASS. With LEO satellites, the system offers high precision, faster convergence, stronger signal power, and better coverage in urban and signal-contested environments,” the statement said.

    Additionally, VyomIC’s constellation would also unlock indoor PNT enabling navigation in closed spaces and buildings that were previously inaccessible, it added.

    “In a world increasingly shaped by autonomy, defence tech, and time-critical infrastructure, resilient navigation becomes non-negotiable. VyomIC’s vision of a sovereign constellation addresses this need head-on. We’re thrilled to back a team that’s executed ambitious projects and is now taking on one of the most foundational layers of modern civilization—PNT,” Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest, said.

    The startup’s long-term vision includes launching a full-fledged constellation to serve global users with secure, real-time navigation and timing services – laying the foundation for the autonomous systems and sovereign infrastructures of the future. PTI